Canada-based electric bus manufacturer GreenPower Motor Company Inc. will lease/purchase a 9.5-acre manufacturing facility in South Charleston, West Virginia. The project is expected to create up to 200 jobs by the end of the year.

The location will include an 80,000-square-foot building, where the company will manufacture zero-emission, all-electric school buses. Employment at the facility may reach up to 900 jobs when full production is reached in 24 months, with the economic impact totalling nearly $500 million per year, according to company officials.

“GreenPower is pleased to announce its zero-emissions, all-electric school bus manufacturing operations are expanding east of the Mississippi River, with West Virginia becoming our school bus manufacturing base of operations for the region,” said Brendan Riley, President of GreenPower. “West Virginia has shown us to be a pro-business state that has a workforce ready to take advantage of clean energy jobs.

GreenPower Motor Company Inc. fabricates multiple models of high-floor and low-floor vehicles, including transit buses, school buses, shuttles, and a double decker.

“Under my administration, we’ve really focused on transforming West Virginia’s image. Part of the way we’re doing that is by embracing all the new technologies that are at our fingertips, and GreenPower setting up shop in West Virginia is yet another exciting project that will help us move our state forward,” Governor Jim Justice explained. “As we continue to diversify our economy, manufacturing these zero-emission school buses in West Virginia will open up a world of opportunities for our state. Just as importantly, this development is going to change lives. Not only will it bring hundreds of great paying jobs to the Kanawha Valley, but the ripple effects on our state’s economy are going to be off-the-charts.”

GreenPower will partner with West Virginia's Workforce Development Board and BridgeValley Community & Technical College for employee recruitment and training.